James Mallos Gallery

"Make a Basket from a Word" unveiled at World Maker Faire NY

2011-09-18T17:53:00.000-07:00

Make a Basket from a Word is a toy that lets you make baskets by following the instructions encoded in an undip word. Read more on my Weave Anything blog.

Twongs debut at NY Maker Faire

2010-09-29T15:49:00.000-07:00

Hundreds of faire-goers had fun with twongs at the New York Maker Faire, September 25-26, 2010 in Queens, NYC.

Twongs are helical pieces that twist together to form basket-like structures. See more about twongs on my WeaveAnything blog.

Big Little in Crystal City

2010-03-30T11:24:00.000-07:00

Big Little will be part of Bucky Art in Crystal City, Virginia this summer.

Washington's Chicago-Sized Calder

2010-01-28T09:57:00.000-08:00

Is this the biggest secret in Congress? I grew up in this town and I had no idea there is an eight-story tall sculpture by Alexander Calder inside the Hart Senate Office Building, not until I came innocently upon it yesterday, like walking through the woods and coming upon a dinosaur.

2010-01-20T08:01:00.000-08:00

Source, 2008 Aluminum, 77” h x 19 x 24.

Smoke

2010-01-20T07:51:00.000-08:00

Smoke, 2009. Stainless steel, copper wire, steel nuts and screws. This work was exhibited at 1460 Wall-Mountables at the District of Columbia Arts Center last summer.

Virgule

2010-01-20T07:48:00.000-08:00

Virgule, 2008. Aluminum, 8” h x 18 x 9.

Trophy of Lost Time

2010-01-20T07:32:00.000-08:00

Trophy of Lost Time, 2009. Venetian blind parts, 9” h x 35 x 7. This work was exhibited in Reused and Recycled, Art League of Alexandria, 2009, juried by Joe Hicks.

Mental Map at City Hall

2010-01-20T07:03:00.001-08:00

City of Alexandria Mental Map was my first sculpture juried into an exhibition (Paint Alexandria 2007, juried by Lenny Campello.) Later it was in Art in City Hall (shown above) at Alexandria City Hall, juried by Barbara Wolanin. It is a framed photograph of a temporary sculpture that was installed in Oronoco Bay Park on 5/24/2007, mounted behind a shaped remnant of the polystyrene foam used in the sculpture.

Fallen Fan at Artomatic 2009

2010-01-20T06:39:00.000-08:00

Fallen Fan, 2009. Aluminum, 22” h x 23 x 20. The title came last (I may have been influenced by having slept several months under a ceiling fan for the first time in my life.) Installations at Artomatic are done without air-conditioning to save expense. When air-conditioning in the unfinished office building finally came on, it blew many things over. Fallen Fan was true to his name.

Flat City details

2010-01-20T06:26:00.000-08:00

Flat City is made up of nearly identical shapes (a few are shortened) cut from aluminum sheet. The three-dimensionality comes from a slight angular deficit around the four-way crossings, just like the angular deficit a paper cone has around its vertex.

Flat City at Artomatic 2009

2010-01-20T06:02:00.000-08:00

Flat City, shown here on exhibit at Artomatic 2009 in the Navy Yard neighborhood of Washington, DC, is a fragment of locked biaxial weaving (tabby weave.) Usually I have been interested in triaxial weaves, but biaxial weaves have a classicism suggestive of this city. From a mathematical point of view (Akleman et al. 2009) there is negligible difference between triaxial and biaxial weaving, they can be as mixed just as freely as squares and triangles can be mixed in a tiling.

Spirals of Foliate 2

2010-01-04T14:44:00.000-08:00

The two spiral ends of Foliate 2 are approximately hyperbolic spirals, the shape of a spiral that grows from the outside in, like the tendril of a vine. Steel rather likes this shape when the profile tapers to a point, indeed, the inspiration of Foliate was metal scrap left behind by a pair of tin snips. Organic form is not such a stranger to an industrial material.

Foliate 2 at U.S. Botanic Gardens

2010-01-04T14:25:00.000-08:00

Over the summer, Foliate 2 was part of Growing Inspirations, a show sponsored by the Washington Sculptors Group at the U.S. Botanic Gardens during the summer of 2009. Rusted steel, 20" x 12" x 7" h.

Olivier's Fingertip

2008-12-07T08:59:00.000-08:00

Olivier's Fingertip, 2008, has been entered for "Sculpture Now 2009," February 2 - May 1, 2009, Washington Square, Washington, DC. Aluminum flashing and inkjet-printed paper, 14" x 13" x 11". This is an accurate representation of the tip of a particular man's left index finger woven from specially-shaped weavers. The templates for the weavers were created in a computer program in the Processing language. The 3D data is courtesy of IMATI, INRIA, and TECHNION by the AIM@SHAPE Shape Repository. More details at Weave Anything.

Blow

2008-10-22T08:06:00.000-07:00

Blow: Sculpture Taking Offense at the Viewer's Alteration of Its Luminous Field was exhibited at during the FLIK Film Festival, July 25-27, 2008 at Art Whino Gallery, National Harbor, Maryland. Blow is a self contained BEAMbot powered by gallery lighting.

Today Now

2008-10-22T05:46:00.000-07:00

Visitors to the FLIK Film Festival in National Harbor, Maryland had the chance to interact with "Today Now," a MacBook set up to reorganize their appearance as a p6 symmetry pattern. Moving and gesturing changed the pattern. If they saw anything they liked, they could donate it to the public domain. The short documentary "The Creativity of Crowds" exhibits a few of their original contributions to the public domain. Click on the video while it is playing to have the option to view it at higher resolution. All of the designs can be seen at www.flickr.com/photos/james_mallos.

Think Like Nature -- Artomatic 2008

2008-05-18T07:30:00.000-07:00

Offering (Hex-weave Basket in the Shape of a Man's Fingertip)

2008-05-16T06:01:00.000-07:00

Vinyl flashing, inkjet-printed card stock. On exhibit Artomatic 2008. Also exhibited at Bay Area Maker Faire 2008.

Sunrise (Antecedent of the Cube)

2008-05-16T05:58:00.000-07:00

Polystyrene foam. On exhibit at Artomatic 2008.

Stamens

2008-05-16T05:56:00.001-07:00

Fiberglass fishing rods, nylon cable ties, Spectra fishing line. On exhibit at Artomatic 2008.

Blossom

2008-05-16T05:53:00.000-07:00

Oak plywood. On exhibit at Artomatic 2008.

Foliate

2008-05-16T05:51:00.000-07:00

Steel. Exhibited at The Art League of Alexandria's "Interplay: Humanity and Nature," 2008. Private collection.

Return

2008-05-16T05:47:00.000-07:00

Aluminum. Exhibited at the Art League of Alexandria Patrons' Show. Private collection.

Muscles, Levers, Robots

2007-12-08T04:12:00.000-08:00

Saturday I'm teaching a course for Adventure in Science about muscles and leverage, and learning about both by building pneumatic artificial muscles for robots. The muscles we'll build are big. They are made from plastic drum liners and powered by an electric air-mattress blower. I hope to have photos to post afterwards. Meanwhile some relevant links:

Our pneumatic artificial muscles are most similar to the pleated artificial muscles described by Frank Daerden and Dirk Lefeber, but here the plastic is not pleated in advance, merely cinched at each end.

Crucial to this project is the ability to tie the constrictor knot, a wonderful knot that works like a hose clamp to bundle the ends of the muscle together.

We'll start by observing our own muscles in action, and notice how they work in opposing pairs, and then re-examine the principle of the lever to see how muscles might extend their range of motion and increase their speed of movement.

It should be fun for anyone who wants to build big muscles.

Quill

2007-10-18T05:38:00.000-07:00

Quill (2007). Aluminum, 1' x 24'. Currently on exhibit at Washington Square, 1050 Connecticut Avenue, NW Washington, D.C. as part of The Art League Sculptors at Washington Square.

28/7

2007-10-18T05:21:00.000-07:00

A maquette for 28/7. This was part of a proposal for the grounds of the Arlington Arts Center. A suspended sculpture of 28 identical elements, proposed to be reconfigured on a 7-day cycle.

City of Alexandria Mental Map

2007-10-18T04:58:00.000-07:00

This sculpture was made as part of Paint Alexandria 2007. It was exhibited as a two-dimensional work, City of Alexandria Mental Map at the Art League of Alexandria in June.

Blossom Table

2007-10-17T16:45:00.000-07:00

This is another work exhibited at Artomatic 2007, the three petals can be unwoven to open the blossom.

Whew!

2007-04-12T23:36:00.000-07:00

Here is some of sculpture I am showing at Artomatic in Arlington, VA from April 13 to May 20, 2007. Labeling the pieces '2007' doesn't quite say it. They all just made it under the wire-- and the laundry hasn't been done in a while. "Slow Walk" in turquoise and "Principle" au naturel.

Sketch (2007)
Steel mesh
10' x 10' x 6'